Rowett Sees ‘Settled Period’ As A Key Time

Gary Rowett believes the next few weeks will be an important period for Derby County’s players on the training ground.

Derby have only two more games to play in the Sky Bet Championship during January, at home to Bristol City this Friday and then away to Millwall on Tuesday 30th January.

That means Rowett and his backroom staff will have more time to work with the Rams’ squad on the training ground and get some good quality work in ahead of the closing months of the season.

The lighter schedule in terms of games is a stark contrast to recent weeks, particularly during the action-packed festive period.

Rowett believes the extra time to work with his players will not only be beneficial in the short-term, but also for the remaining months of the campaign.

With the Rams occupying an automatic promotion spot, there’s plenty to play for in the 19 remaining games of the season.

“The fixture list is a little bit more settled down for a while now which is good,” Rowett told RamsTV.

“Once you get through that busy festive period, you know that this is a time where things ease off in terms of the games coming thick and fast. We’re aware the midweek games come back into play more from February onwards.

“We’ve got a spell now where we can get some work done (on the Training Ground) that you can’t when you’re playing every three or four days. It’s nice to have more freedom to do our work over this period.

“It’s an important period in terms of preparation for not just the next batch of games but also the rest of the season.”

Rowett made the most of Derby’s strength in depth over the Christmas schedule by utilising his squad.

However, he feels the bigger gaps between matches in the weeks ahead could provide the opportunity for more continuity when it comes to naming his starting line-up.

“We can possibly get back to a little bit of continuity with the team,” he explained.

“We would like continuity and a settled side but that will ultimately be down to results. If you win games, it’s easier to do that but if you don’t you’re always looking to tweak things.

“People may not realise that it takes hours and hours behind the scenes to prepare for a game, so it is a challenge when you’re playing every couple of days.

“What’s been nice in recent games is we’ve been able to change the team and it’s not impacted on the quality or the results. It shows we have strength in depth.”